Trick-or-Treating with Charlie
by ama2012
Summary: Steve joins Danny and Charlie on Halloween, which unsurprisingly ends up with a trip to the hospital.


"How can you chase down bad guys, jump out of windows and act like an animal at work, but you do a simple task like trick-or-treating and manage to break your ankle?"

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_2 hours earlier._

"Charlie! Looking good cowboy!" The little boy was dressed head to toe in his cowboy costume with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a little lasso.

Steve didn't have any plans for Halloween and instead of staying home by himself he asked if he could bring Eddie and walk around the neighborhood with Danny and Charlie. Knowing Charlie was going to be a cowboy, Steve got a costume for Eddie to be the cowboy's horse. Charlie's face lit up when he saw the dog dressed as a horse.

When Danny saw the dog, he couldn't help but ask, "Where on earth did you find that horse costume for him?"

"The internet Danno, well actually I had Tani find it and order it for him." Laughing at how ridiculous the dog looked, Eddie didn't seem to mind it and it was actually cute how the boy and dog's costumes went so well together.

"Alright Charlie, you ready to go get some candy?" Danny grabbed the cowboy's hand and they headed out the door to go trick-or-treating, with Steve and Ed following right behind.

The sun was starting to set and kids were running all over the neighborhood. Danny's neighbors all loved spooky season and went all out with decorations, making it a fun place for all the kids to spend the evening.

Charlie was running back from his third house of the evening, grinning from ear to ear and holding a large Snickers bar, waving it for Danno to see what he got. It was one of those good houses that gave out full size candy bars to it's trick-or-treaters. Out of nowhere an older kid in a clown mask jumped out from behind the bushes right as Charlie was stepping down a small flight of stairs. It scared the little boy so much he tripped down the first step, but before he hit the ground, strong arms grabbed him and gave him a soft landing. A loud groan came from the man lying on the ground with the little cowboy laying on top of him.

Steve had been close enough to the small group of steps, that as soon as he saw the clown come from behind the bushes he let go of Eddie's leash and his attention went straight to Charlie. He reacted quick enough to grab the boy before he hit the ground, but as he took his first step in the grass he heard a loud pop and felt a sharp pain run all the way up his leg. Of all places he had stepped, he managed to step in a hole right next to the steps.

As soon as it happened, he knew it was broken. He'd broken a lot of bones in his life, and this was no different. He wanted to scream out every cuss word he could think of, but since there were kids all around he decided it was better to just scream them in his head. He felt the boy being lifted off his chest and started to do a mental assessment to see if anything else hurt. Luckily, the only thing that felt injured was his ankle. He repositioned his leg to try and get up, and as soon as he lifted it off the ground another spike of pain ran up his leg and he laid back down to let the pain settle.

"Charlie, are you ok?" Danny ran over and picked up the boy, checking him over to make sure he was not hurt. Whipping his head around, he stared right at the clown and yelled "What the hell were you thinking?" It was teenager, and after he apologized he ran off with his friends.

After checking Charlie over, Danny looked over at Steve and wondered why he hadn't gotten up yet. He could see the man staring at him, but he was making no attempt to get up. When it first happened, people all around were standing around and watching, but now that it had been few minutes since the incident, everyone had gone back to collecting candy. Putting Charlie down, he walked over to the man, who had actually decided to dress up for the evening… if you call putting on a plaid shirt and calling yourself a lumberjack a costume.

Danny got closer and noticed a face he had seen too many times, a man who was trying to hide his pain. "Steve, what are you doing? Why haven't you gotten up?" Knowing something was wrong, he tried to see if the ex-Navy SEAL would admit to being injured.

He reached an arm out to the man lying on the ground, and helped him stand up. Another painful groan, louder this time, escaped Steve's lips as he balanced himself on one leg. "Danny, I think my ankle is broken. Well I don't think, I know it's broken. Help me walk back to your house and I'll drive myself to the ER, I'm not getting in an ambulance."

"First of all, you're not going to the hospital by yourself, let alone driving. Second, thank you for grabbing Charlie. If you weren't there, we'd have bigger problems than just a broken ankle." Danny smiled at Steve, knowing Steve picked up on his sarcastic humor. Had Charlie been the one hurt, that poor clown would have been running for his life.

"Can you put any weight on it?" Danny asked Steve as he grabbed his friend to support him. Steve put his foot on the ground and transferred a little weight to his bad leg. He regretted it immediately, his ankle was already throbbing, but that increased the pain tenfold. In an effort to to make the pain stop, he transferred most of his weight to Danny who was already struggling trying to support the much bigger man. "Ok, I'll take that as a no."

They made their way slowly back to Danny's house. Charlie was a little sad to be going home so early, but after what had just happened and knowing his Uncle was hurt, he did not object. With Eddie in tow, he walked beside the two grown-ups.

What would normally take them 5 minutes, took them 20 minutes and by the time they got home, both men were sweaty and exhausted. Steve had dealt with so much worse in the Navy and on the job, but he didn't realize until now, that unless you've got adrenaline running through your veins, this shit hurt.

Not wanting to bring Charlie to the hospital, Danny called Junior to see if he could come watch him and after he explained what happened Junior agreed. He had been with Tani at a Halloween party half an hour away from Danny's place and since he didn't have much experience with kids, he was glad Tani agreed to come with him.

While they waited for Tani and Junior, Steve laid on the couch in the house with his leg propped up on a pillow. His ankle was starting to swell and become stiff. At this point, was thinking he probably should have called an ambulance awhile ago, but too late now.

Forty-five minutes later the two arrived. Junior and Danny helped Steve out to the Camaro while Tani hung back with Charlie. Noticing how little candy the little cowboy had in his Halloween bucket, Tani asked Danny if she and Junes could take him back out trick-or-treating. Danny agreed as long as they updated him every 30 minutes that he was ok and to get him back home by 8pm.

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Steve was now laying on a hospital bed in the emergency room at Tripler. After getting an X-ray on his ankle, they did a full body evaluation to make sure he wasn't injured anywhere else. He ended up having to change into a hospital gown after they found he scraped his back pretty badly and needed to clean and bandage it. The blood hadn't been visible on his red lumberjack shirt and the pain from his ankle complete overshadowed the pain in his back.

A nurse was next to Steve now, taking his vitals and poking him with a needle to start an IV. They were still waiting for the results of the X-ray, but Steve knew if he was getting an IV then surgery was going to be in his future. A few minutes later the doctor walked in with the X-rays. Bad news was he would need surgery, good news is the recovery time is the same whether he needed surgery or not. Steve didn't really see that as good news considering he wouldn't be able to work in the field for awhile. He would be stuck doing paperwork all day while the rest of the team got their hands dirty.

Danny could see how bummed Steve was, "Hey buddy, you know Charlie's going to have a good story to tell one day. How his Uncle saved him from a scary clown."

Glad to have something to think about beside the surgery, Steve kept the conversation going. "Yeah I guess he does, and hey Danny, I'm really sorry I ruined Charlie's Halloween. Tell him I'll make it up to him." Steve looked at his partner with an apologetic grin.

Pulling out his phone, he opened up the picture Junior had just sent him. He showed it to Steve, causing the man to laugh out loud. "Thanks to Tani, I don't think his Halloween is ruined after all. You owe her a beer or something." Winking at his injured friend. The little boy in the picture had the biggest smile on his face as he held up 5 different candy bars, while Tani stood next to him holding 10 more in her mermaid costume. Somehow they had hit the jackpot and Charlie was the happiest kid on the planet.

Not long after the nurse left the first time, she walked back in and started prepping Steve for surgery. Due to the severity of the break, he would need a plate and 5 screws to put his tibia back together and the surgery shouldn't take more than 3 hours. She told Danny he could go wait in the surgical waiting room and someone would be out after the surgery to let him know what room Steve would be in. He watched as his friend was rolled away on the gurney and then headed up to the waiting room.

Steve always hated this part. The time right before they put you under while you're laying on the operating table in the cold OR, it's always cold. And the smell, he always hated the smell of the sterile environment and the smell of the laughing gas they use to put you under. He'd been conscious more times than unconscious when going into surgery and it never got any better, it just brought back memories of every other time he was having to go under the knife. He started counting backwards from 10 and by the time he got to 5 he was out cold.

Back in the waiting room, Danny called Junior to update him on Steve and check on Charlie. Junior told him Charlie was doing fine and they would stay with him as long as Danny needed. He knew Danny would want to stay with Steve at the hospital and Danny was glad he offered to watch the boy. Danny gave Junior a quick rundown of Charlie's bedtime routine, then talked to his son himself. He told him Steve was going to be ok and that he would see him in the morning, reassuring the boy that everything was alright and to behave for Junior and Tani.

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Like the nurse had said, the surgery lasted a little under 3 hours. A doctor walked through the doors towards Danny and informed him on the Steve's condition.

"He did very well. None of the bone chipped off into smaller fragments, so it was very straight forward in repairing the bone with the plate and screws. After a few months of healing and PT he'll be back to normal. He's in recovery now and will be moved to a room shortly. I'll have a nurse come get you when he's ready for visitors. Since it's the middle of the night we're going to keep him here until morning to keep the pain under control and that way you can get his prescription filled on the way home from here."

Danny thanked the doctor and waited half an hour before the nurse came to get him to take him to Steve's room. As he walked in the room, he expected Steve to still be out, but as soon as he walked in the room a big goofy grin was plastered on the man staring right back at him. Steve had always been one to wake up from anesthesia quickly and this time was no different.

His leg was propped up on pillows to keep it elevated above his heart. He didn't have a hard cast, but a splint going up mid calf that was wrapped in ace bandages to help with the swelling. In a few weeks he was told he'd get a hard cast after his first post op visit.

"You look like you're feeling pretty good buddy." Danny smiled back at Steve in the bed.

"Nope, my ankle hurts like hell, just happy to see you."

Steve was definitely still coming off the anesthesia. He might of looked wide awake, but he was still loopy. Going to sit beside the bed, Danny frowned at the chair that was sitting there. He never understood why the chairs were so uncomfortable when the whole point of them was to have people sit there for long periods of time, and sometimes sleep in them. He sat down, getting as comfortable as he could, and made small talk with Steve until the drugs finally kicked in again and he was out for the night. Steve didn't need a babysitter, but he knew if the tables were turned, Steve would be next to his bed, staying there until the minute he was released from the hospital.

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The next morning, a doctor came in to do a quick check of the patient laying in the bed. Everything looked good and he cleared Steve to be released. Since the clothes Steve came into the hospital room were bloody and wouldn't fit over the cast, the nurse brought in sweatpants and a t-shirt for Steve to wear. He slowly made his way into the wheelchair next to the bed with only a little assistance from the nurse and they exited the hospital where Danny was waiting with the car.

He'd have to use crutches for awhile and wasn't allowed to put weight on his leg at all. The nurse reminded Steve the splint is not meant to hold a person's weight and will break if too much weight is put on the cast.

Junior had already brought Eddie back to Steve's house and was waiting there when Danny pulled the Camaro into the driveway. He helped Steve get settled on the couch and gave him the remote. Steve turned on the TV to find something semi-interesting. He knew he was going to fall asleep so he didn't want to get hooked on an interesting show.

Danny handed over all of Steve's prescriptions to Junior, telling him how much and when to give them to him. Hugging the young man and thanking him for everything he had done the night before, Danny said bye to Steve and Junior then left Steve's house and headed back to his home, eager to see his son and learn how on earth Tani managed to get so much candy.

Turns out, Tani had made Junior run to the gas station right after Steve and Danny left. She told him to buy a bunch of candy bars and drop them off at the neighbors house. They waited until Junior had completed his mission and then took Charlie to the candy bar house where the sweet old woman dropped all of the candy bars into the little cowboy's Halloween bucket. Tani said she has never seen a child smile for so long. Danny appreciated how much the two newest members of the Five-0 Ohana cared about his son and did their very best to give him a Halloween to remember. He hugged and thanked Tani as she left, smiling as much as Charlie did when he got the candy bars. Turns out this would also be a Halloween that Danny would never forget.


End file.
